First Person - When he walked into the prison yard for the first time as a teenager, having never been there before, Dr Rawiri Waretini-Karena already knew most the men in there.

This is a somewhat challenging read but important enough a topic to read with an open mind.

IMHO The author should have explained what traditionally happened to child abusers: probably ostracized from the hāpu or just outright killed (utu).

  • DaveMA
    5·
    2 months ago

    I think the important question is “what comes next?”

    We are where we are. It’s a shit place. But how do we get out of it?

    I don’t know the answer. I think we can reasonably assume boot camps are not the answer. Almost certainly what kids on the wrong path need is not being yelled at some more by people in authority. It’s a complex topic and I don’t think there are any easy answers.

    But I do wish we would take that $150k+ a year that it costs to keep someone in prison, and apply it to keeping people out of prison.

    You could even argue the benefits are more than the $150k. Having a productive member of society, plus the fact that kids with parents in prison are more likely to go to prison themselves, means that keeping people out of prison pays dividends. It would likely still be worth it even if it cost $150k a year for the rest of their life to keep them out of prison (via support services).